Garment-supporter or garter.



PATENTED FEB. 26, 1907 H. M. STIDHAM. GARMENT SUPPORTER OR GARTBR.

APPLICATION FILED DEC, 3,1906

WITNESS/5S" 1 M v 4/ I {/ATTOR/VEK HARLAN M. STIDHAM, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

' GARE'WENT filJPPQRTER QR GARTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb 26, 1907.

Application filed December 3, 1906- Serial No. 346,032.

To all whoml it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HARLAN M. STIDHAM,

- a citizen of the United States, and a resident 'side only there, iscertain to be, to some eX-' tent, a mutual drawing of the hose andgarter' of the city of New York, borough of Manhattan, county and Stateof New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inGarment-Supporters or Gart rs, of which the following is a full, clear,and exact specie fication. l

My invention relates more particularly to garters for supportinggentlemens half-hose, and has in view the correcting of many of theobjectionable features commonly found in garters.

The present style of mens garters while they vary in many respects all,as far as I am aware, extend down and are secured to the hose from oneside (the inside) of the hose only. This, as is obvious, causes asagging of the garter on the side attached to the hose and acorresponding drawing up of the hose in the neighborhood of the point towhich the garter is secured. Numerous attempts have been made to preventthe garter fromv thus sagging; but it is quite obvious that whereverthe'garter supports the hose from one together in the line where the twoare attached. A single attachment to the hose with the correspondingsagging in the garter besides causing an uneven binding of the leg alsogives the garter around the lega larger diameter (due to its'inclinedposition) than that of the leg, and unless the garter is suilicientlytight to cause it to be embedded, so to speak, in the flesh of the leg,it will, upon any jarring, such as in walking, (or especially injumping) work down or drop, first very gradually and then quite rapidly,until it finally drops over the hose. In these styles of garters theentire strain upon the hose is applied at only one point, and thereforeoften tears the hose and. un'lits it for further use. The drawing of thehose upward at one point only also causes a distortion of the fabriccomposing the hose and a corresponding distortion. oi whatever figure ordesign the hose may be ornamented with and ruins the ell'ect that therewould otherwise be. This distortion is perhaps most noticeable in hosemade up of horizontal stripes or similar designs.

In my improved garter I have overcome these objectionable features bydesigning the parts to accommodate two side straps, thus enabling thehose to be secured at two points oppositely located. The webbing of thegarter, instead of sagging, thus fits horizontally around the leg, whichshould be at about midway" of the calf and the knee. horizontal positionit does not cut into the flesh, neither does it out or tear the Webbing,(as is often the case in the sagging garter.) It can accordingly be usedfor a much longer time. The hose is held up evenly from both 6 5 sidesand all drawing or stretching overcome.

As will later be more fully described, my improved garter is adjustablethroughout and can be readily varied in size, as is desired, in anyinstance. o

In the drawings forming part of this'specification', Figure l is aperspective view of improved garter. Fig. 2 is the part uponwhich isformedtthe. hook of the buckle for securing my garter. around the leg.Fig. 3 is 7 5 a sectional view taken on the line :1; w oi Fig. 2. Fig. 4is the part upon which is formed the eye of the buckle for securing thegarter around the leg. Fig. 5 is one of the hooks or clasps hung fromthe side straps of the garter 30 for securing the hose thereto. Fig. 6is the hanger from which the adjustable side strap of the garter issuspended. Fig. 7 is the iris tion-slide for. varying the size of thegarter.

The metal parts of my garter are all struck from sheet metal and (withthe exception of the hook of the buckle) each piece is flat or in oneplane. They therefore are simple and cheap to construct, and the metalparts being fiat and about the same thickness as the fabric used in thegarter set snugly and symmetrically about the leg and give the greatestcomfort to the wearer.

In the drawings, A and B are the members containing, respectively, thehook and the 5 eye of the buckle for securing the garter around the leg.The member A. is made by a single stamping and should be preferably ofthe form shown in Fig. 2, in which a and b are two slots substantiallyat right angles. To the vertical slot a is attached the webbing C of thegarter that passes around the leg, and through the horizontal slot ispassed the webbing D, forming .one of the side straps.

The hook of the buckle is formed by stamp- 10 5 ing a rectangular slot,the side of the rectan- In this 60 gle nearest the edge being stampedonly part (about one-third) way up from either corner,

thus forming a neck 0 and tongue d. The

tongue dis ofisetto about the thickness of the metal forming a hook.Fig. 3.)

The member B is preferably of the form shown in Fig. 4 and has atransverse slot e near its rear edge, through which is passed thewebbing C of the garter that passes around the leg.

In the front of Bis stamped the eye f of the buckle. The breadth acrossthe front of this eye is approximately equal to the breadth of the necka of the hook. The eye then gradually widens until it becomes ofsufficient size to freely pass over the enlarged part d of the hook. Thebuckle as thus constructed is easy to clasp and unclasp, but owing tothe fact that the eye must be carried sufficiently forward to allow theenlarged part at the rear to register with the tongue d before thebuckle can become unclasped there is little or no danger of the buckleunclasping by accident. It is therefore possible to wear a much loosergarter than would otherwise be the case without the accompanying dangerof the buckle accidentally unclasping.

are the books or clasps suspended from the ends of the side straps F andD for at taching the hose to the garter. They are substantially in theform of hooks and are provided at their top with parallel slots g and h,for securing them to the side straps. The back of each hook is bowedoutward, forming the angle i.

j is the crotch and is a well-known means for securing hose and othergarments, it onl being necessary to gather (or pinch) a fold of the hoseand pull it well down into the crotch in order to securely fasten thegarment. As ordinarily used the crotch is formed in the bottom of a loopor elongated (diamondshaped) hole stamped in the metal; but this has thedisadvantage that the fold in the hose cannot be made and forced in thecrotch except by first laying the clasp against the place of the hosewhere it is to be secured and then forcing the fingers through andpulling the fold out and into the crotch. In my improved clasp it isonly necessary to gather a fold of the hose at the point where it isdesired to secure it and after the fold is made to hook th clasp on anddraw it well up until 1tlhe crotch tightly pinches the fold of the ose.

G is the ha er, to which is secured the side strap F. is a slotextending across the lower end of this hanger, through which passes thestrap F.

Z and m are two parallel slots, through which passes the webbing C, soas to allow the central portion of G to come on the inside (Best shownin the edges of the sides of the metal from contact with the leg.

H is the friction-slide and is provided with parallel slots 41. and 0%through which passes the webbing C. The end of the webbing after assingthrou h the slot in the -member extends bac r again to the slide H andis secured around the central part thereof, thus forming an adjustableloo for varying the length of the garter.- T .e webbing O is passedthrough the slide H, so as to keep the edges of the sides of the slidefrom contact with the leg in a manner similar to that of the hanger G.

In assembling the different parts or my garter one end of the webbing Cis passed through s ot a in member A and brought back and sewed to thewebbing or otherwise made fast. through hanger G and slide H,respectively, in the manner already described. The free end of webbing 0next is passed throu h slot e of member B from the outside, and the thecentral part of slide H and secured in the same manner as the other endof the garter already described.

The side straps D and F are secured in the following manner: One end ofthe webbing is passed through the up )er slot of the clasps E andbrought bacli again and se cured in a manner similar to the ends of thewebbing C. The free ends of the straps D and F are then assed throughhorizontal slots in the members A and G, respectively, brought downagain and through the parallel slots in the clasps E (or around thecentral portion formed by these slots) the free ends finally extendingupward between the folds thus formed in the strap. To alter the size ofthe garter in any instance it is only necessary to-shift the slide H inthe direction de sired and to shift the hanger G correspondingly tobring the side strap F opposite the strap D.

' The length of the side straps are adjusted by drawing the free end ofthe Webbing through the slots of E in the desired direction. The sidestraps, slide H,'and hanger G are held in their respective adjustedpositions by the friction afforded by the several parts.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In mens half-hose supporter the combina' tion of a band of elasticwebbing, a buckle, secured to the, ends ofthe band, one end of thewebbing secured to the hook of the buckle, the other end assed throughthe eye member of the buck ing-slide mounted on the band of webbing, thesaid hook member comprising a plate a, a tongue (1, offset from andparallel to this 1e, and secured to an adjust- 7 The webbing is thenpassed end brought back again and passed around plate and e eonummiedneck a connecting the Plete wiji ll the tengue the eye of said buck}Qemg of smficient at its be fTeey pass over the tongue (1 and (101mm,its forward end to snug 1y engage the neck a to securely lock thebuckle, two adjustable side straps suspended from the band, ene

from the book of the buckle, the other r0111 an adjustable hangermnunteei on the bend and Clasps or hooks suspended from the slde trapssubsteutmliy as shown and describes.

M A. HELMKE, V. Be um

